ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
Many inmates use legal maneuvering in an attempt to get time cut from their sentence.
But an inmate at Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn is seeking relief of a different sort. He's suing the prison doctor for $50,000 - and a circumcision.
Hubert Leverich said in the suit that he suffers from infections and pain because he is uncircumcised. The prison doctor has told him there is nothing wrong with his penis and that circumcision is considered elective surgery that he is ineligible for while incarcerated, according to the federal lawsuit.
The physician is identified only as Dr. Alvig in the handwritten complaint. Employees in the prison's medical center refused to divulge his first name Thursday, saying it was a security issue.
Leverich filed a grievance through the prison which was denied. His lawsuit, in which he is representing himself, is one of more than 1,000 prisoner suits filed in the Western District of Virginia this year.
The inmate said he has seen the doctor three times since mid-November and that Alvig could find nothing wrong. During one exam, Alvig called a correctional officer over and asked "if he could see anything wrong with my penus [sic]," the lawsuit said.
"This is a serious medical problem that involves pain and suffering on my behalf as well as infection," Leverich said in the suit.
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB